


Their Place In All This

by idrilhadhafang



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Ben Solo Needs A Hug, Bendemption-centric, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Minor Finn/Rey (Star Wars), Minor Jessika Pava/Jannah, Past Creepy Snoke, Past Torture, Poe Dameron Needs A Hug, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Redeemed Ben Solo, Rey & Ben Solo Friendship, Rey Redemption, Slow Burn Poe Dameron/Ben Solo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 09:40:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20691404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: Kylo Ren, now Ben Solo, helped the Resistance win against Palpatine. But the road to redemption is a work-in-progress, and he has to fix many things, including with the man he loves, Poe Dameron.





	Their Place In All This

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Author’s Notes: So I should be working on a prompt request from the awesome palpytime on Tumblr (and I’ll get to it tonight, promise!) but this idea kind of popped into my head. 
> 
> Basically going to do the same fic idea, only two variations. One during TROS, one post.

The war was over, and Ben Solo (formerly Kylo Ren) had helped them win it. That he knew. He had helped defeat the resurrected Emperor...and he knew that it still wasn’t enough. 

Of course it wasn’t enough. After all, just because he had finally done the “right” thing at the last minute (that was probably the only part where he was like his grandfather, really) didn’t mean that everything was all right in the end. Even sitting in the mess hall among the members of the former Resistance, Ben found that Rey and the former FN-2187 (Rey was there because she too had had a brush with the Dark Side, the former FN-2187 because he was her boyfriend...and Ben knew that FN-2187 was only merely tolerating him, for Rey’s sake) were really the only ones who he could relate to in this whole mess. He definitely couldn’t relate to his mother. Or, for that matter, Poe. 

Even looking at Poe, he remembered a year ago. Poe, on the rack, screaming —

He could barely look at him. How Poe’s mind wasn’t in pieces...Ben doubted he knew. 

“Ben?” Rey’s voice, soft, gentle. It was something that he didn’t deserve. “You okay? Try and eat something.”

FN-2187 — Finn, Ben knew now. Apparently, Poe has suggested the name. It was something Poe would do — said nothing, but Ben could tell he was uncomfortable. Seeing something of himself in Ben...even though it couldn’t be denied that Finn was the better man. 

“I’m fine,” Ben said. Numbly, probably doing a poor job at showing how “fine” he really was. 

He picked at his food. Resistance gruel — although they technically weren’t Resistance anymore, were they? Were they the first of the new? — tasted like bantha poodoo anyway. How did the members of the Resistance even tolerate it?

Poe, meanwhile, was merely talking to the others. Jannah, one of the more recent recruits, was laughing with Jessika Pava. Snap and Kare were holding hands under the table. Poe was...obviously ignoring him. 

That was fair. 

_“You think that Dameron would want you, desire you, after all you’ve done?”_

Snoke’s voice. No more than a memory, but enough to make Ben stab a little too much into a bit of egg. The familiar tension in his body, like a pacing monster, was threatening to —

Rey must have sensed something, because she actually did look concerned. 

“I’m fine,” Ben said. “It doesn’t matter.”

He picked at his food. Best to at least eat something, even though it tasted awful. 

***

Something in the back of Poe’s head said that he couldn’t avoid Ben Solo — that’s who he was in name, if not identity — forever. All Poe could say in terms of _that _was “Wanna bet?”

It was something he wasn’t “supposed” to feel. After all, Ben had helped them. But what had taken him so long? Why had he left? Why had he tortured and murdered so many people? Including his own father? 

There was something wrong with it. All wrong, actually. Ben didn’t hate his own father. Then again, Ben wouldn’t have thought about torture as being acceptable somehow. 

He talked. Watched as Jannah and Jess bonded. Jannah, at least, seemed to be filling in the empty space where Paige Tico was. 

It was Jannah who spoke, the smile on her face faltering. “You look like you went off somewhere,” she said. “You okay?”

Poe shrugged. “Yeah.”

They didn’t have to mention the bantha in the room — rather, the former Supreme Leader sitting in the room at one of the tables. Ben had helped them — Poe “shouldn’t” be angry, but here he was.

Then again, “shouldn’t” was hella limiting, wasn’t it?

***

Ben was relieved when he was able to avoid Poe. It didn’t mean Rey was. After they got some privacy (though Ben could feel Finn’s mistrust, like he would possibly hurt Rey. Never mind that he wasn’t hurting anyone anymore), Rey said, “You can’t avoid him forever.”

”Who said I was avoiding him?”

”It doesn’t take a Force Bond to read you,” Rey said. “I saw the look in your eyes — it was like you were running away.”

"I’m not...” 

“Ben,” Rey said, “You think I don’t feel guilty over what I’ve done?”

It was something that, admittedly, he didn’t expect. So the former scavenger had a shard of vulnerability after all. 

Rey continued. “We’ll work at it together. No matter what. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that you can’t run away from or deny your problems forever.”

”Why not?” Ben said, bluntly. 

Rey sighed. “Either way, we’re going to fix this. Reform everything. Including ourselves.”

Ben nodded, if slowly. “Can it work?”

”As you put it, Ben,” Rey said. “Why not?”


End file.
